How To Get Back To Healthy After The Holidays

I love the holiday season! We spend time with family, experience the wonder of Christmastime, and eat lots of good food! LOTS OF FOOD. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s all within six weeks of each other, I understand why people always set the resolution of getting back in shape and eating right. There is so much food available during the holiday season, and most of it isn’t healthy. Pies, cookies, cakes, and popcorn top my list of favorite holiday treats. Much to my body’s despair, I also don’t have much time to exercise during the holiday season (plus, it’s COLD). So needless to say, it can be hard to drag myself back to my healthy routines after the holidays are over. But don’t despair! It’s not impossible! We can do this together! I’m going to walk you through some simple ways to get back to healthy after the holidays!

Take a break from your temptations.

Y’all, I love ice cream. Cookies and cream is my JAM, and I could eat it every single night. If we have it in our house (which is not common), I only allow myself to have it twice a week. But after the cookie/cake/pie palooza that was the holiday season, I’m taking a complete break from ice cream for a while, even though I normally just limit myself. Why? Because even though my sweet-craving pregnancy brain won’t admit it, I know that my body needs a break from all the junk that I’ve put in it.

Consider doing the same for you. Maybe you normally allow yourself a cheat meal three times a week. It might be a good idea to take a break from that for a couple of weeks and just eat completely healthy. Remember, the goal here is to get back to healthy, and sometimes that takes some drastic measures. Also remember that this is only for a short time; once you get back to your healthy lifestyle, you can go back to allowing yourself little cheats and temptations. 🙂

Set a realistic workout schedule.

If you were able to run 6 days a week before Thanksgiving, but you haven’t run all during the holiday season, don’t make that your goal! You *might* reach it, but chances are you won’t (and if you do, your body will hate you). Getting back into working out after a holiday break requires you to be realistic. Your first week back, aim for 2 days of working out at a light to medium intensity. If you’re feeling good after those 2 days, go for another, but then give your body a rest, and don’t feel guilty. You’ll get back to where you were before the holidays, it just might take you a little bit. And take it from me: that is totally okay! 🙂

Be nice to your body.

Chances are, you probably put your body through the wringer during the holiday season with all the junk food, late nights, and lack of exercise. Now, you have to make up for all that bullying and start being nice to your body again. It starts with the healthy eating and realistic workout schedules that we talked about above, but you’ll probably want to take some additional steps, as well. Make sure you are getting enough sleep each night. Consider treating yourself to a massage. Visit a chiropractor. Listen to your body and give it a break when it needs it. Start taking care of yourself, and your journey back to a healthy lifestyle will go a lot smoother.

Take a note from my niece: grab a blanket and take a nap. Your body needs a break.

It’s hard to get back to healthy after the holidays because, let’s be honest, we all really enjoy cookies and skipping workouts and movies until 3 AM. But when it feels like you’ll be stuck in this unhealthy rut forever, just remember how good it feels to be healthy! Remember how strong you feel when you’re running or how energized you feel after a healthy meal, and let that be your motivation. You can do this! 🙂

Now it’s your turn. How do you get back to healthy after the holidays? What tips and tricks can you share with us?

These are great tips! I love your mention of a realistic post-holiday workout schedule. I have been slack about working out (even walking) the past couple of months and really need to start back slowly.

Great tips! I have also found that I try harder not to be too indulgent over the holidays – a few indulgent meals here and there and that helps not to get too out of sync with the normal year. My favorite thing to do in January to get back in shape is a month of yoga – it’s so detoxifying and makes me feel so much better about the year ahead!

Yep – I’ve given up soda pop, coffee, and fast food. I’m currently trying THRIVE to help motivate me. I’d say it definitely helps me reach my max during workouts. 🙂 Speaking of which, I need to take a break from the WWW to workout this morning while I have time lol. Thanks for the reminder.

I think you’re right – I am not good at moderation, so I just need it out of my house and abstain from things for some time. I’ve gotten into a bad habit of eating anything in sight because I “let loose” over the holidays. I need to reel it back in!

These tips are so amazing! I love the tip on being kind to your body. I’ve been struggling, feeling like my body hates me after the holidays but I never thought to go get a massage or go to the chiropractor. That sounds heavenly!

The realistic workout schedule is everything for me! When I plan to overextend and can’t stick with it, it’s way more disappointing! I just need to accept what I can and can’t handle in the week and this honesty will more likely result in success 🙂

So true & so necessary! I actually ate so many cookies throughout the holiday season that I wasn’t even tempted by them for awhile, which helped 😉 And I also made walking more one of my New Year’s resolutions, which is something that I genuinely enjoy making time for in my workday, so it hasn’t been hard to keep up.

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